Irina Feldman
Associate Professor of Luso-Hispanic Studies
- Office
- Voter 204
- Tel
- (802) 443-5470
- ifeldman@middlebury.edu
- Office Hours
- On leave (AY 2025/2026)
My teaching and publications have consistently focused on twentieth-century Latin American literary and visual cultures, primarily in the Andes region, and specifically in Bolivia. My theoretical focus has been on the Marxist tradition in Latin America. My first book on the great Peruvian writer José María Arguedas is a close reading of his monumental novel Todas las sangres, in which I consider the concept of community from different theoretical angles (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2014). Later, I co-edited a volume on Marxism in Latin America, a collection of essays that takes up Latin American Marxist tradition from different perspectives (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019).
Recently, I have started to expand the time scope of my research, tackling nineteenth-century texts and twenty-first century audiovisual production and branching out geographically. With the support of American Philosophical Society Franklin Grant, I am working on a monograph on explorers and exiles in the networks of exchanges between Paris and Latin America, from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. In this project, I return to my readings of Walter Benjamin as a key theorist for understanding of modernity and its experience in Latin America and approach the texts of the French Nineteenth century explorers, such as Alcide D’Orbigny and Charles Wiener; and twentieth and twenty-first century Latin American canonical and newer writers, such as Cortázar, Vallejo, Asturias, and Gabriela Wiener.
In addition to the Paris /Latin America book project, I have parallel research projects that continue my commitment to the Andes and the tradition of Marxist cultural critique both in teaching and publications. With the support of Whiting Grant and Ada Howe Grant for teaching, during the 2025-26 Academic Year I will be working on research about Mexico City and Santiago de Chile in preparation for my new course Cities of Spain and Latin America. I am co-authoring a chapter on the popular music in Indigenous languages (Q-pop in Lima, Peru and Aymara Rap in El Alto, Bolivia) for a co-edited Andean studies volume. Finally, I am collaborating with a team of Marxist cultural critics on the translation and critical edition of Teoría y práctica de un cine junto al pueblo (1979) by Bolivian filmmaker Jorge Sanjinés.
Courses Taught
CMLT 0700
Upcoming
Senior Thesis
Course Description
Senior Thesis
A senior thesis is normally completed over two semesters. During Fall and Winter terms, or Winter and Spring terms, students will write a 35-page (article length) comparative essay, firmly situated in literary analysis. Students are responsible for identifying and arranging to work with their primary language and secondary language readers, and consulting with the program director before completing the CMLT Thesis Declaration form. (Approval required.)
Terms Taught
SPAN 0101
Beginning Spanish I
Course Description
Beginning Spanish I
This course is an introduction to the fundamentals of grammar and focuses on the development of four skills in Spanish: comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing. Emphasis will be placed on active communication aimed at the development of oral and comprehension skills. This course is for students who have not previously studied Spanish. Students are expected to continue with SPAN 0104 after successful completion of SPAN 0101. 5 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
SPAN 0220
Intermediate Spanish II
Course Description
Intermediate Spanish II
A course for students seeking to perfect their academic writing skills in Spanish. The course is also an introduction to literary analysis and critical writing and will include reading and oral discussion of literary texts. The course will also include a thorough review of grammar at a fairly advanced level. This course may be used to fulfill the foreign languages distribution requirement. (SPAN 0201, SPAN 0210, or placement) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SPAN 0300
Intro to Hispanic Literature
Course Description
An Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Literature
This course in literature and advanced language is designed to introduce students to literary analysis and critical writing. The work will be based on the reading of a number of works in prose, drama, and poetry. Frequent short, critical essays will complement readings and provide students with practice in writing. (SPAN 0220 or placement) 3 hrs. lect./disc.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SPAN 0347
Indigenous peoples Bolivia
Course Description
Indigenous peoples and social movements in Bolivia
Quechua and Aymara people of the Andes, and the indigenous nations from the Lowlands have been key in grassroots movements in Bolivia in the 21st century. We will study historical and present indigenous decolonial and environmental struggles, tackling issues of political representation and self-representation. We will look at indigenist literature and film, the Constitution of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, and indigenous journalism and performance. The Bolivian case will be placed in context with other social movements in the region and the Global South. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SPAN 0490
Latin America in Paris
Course Description
Latin America in Paris/Paris in Latin America
Paris has been central in cultural exchanges with Latin America, as a model of an ideal city, a rejected cipher of coloniality, and a place of encounters. Many Latin American intellectuals and artists, such as Cesar Vallejo and Remedios Varo, lived and created in Paris. Tango became an Argentinean national symbol after having been recognized in the Parisian night scene. In this course we will study phenomena such as these to understand the dynamics of translation and exchange of people and ideas, and their profound impact on both Latin America and Paris. 3 hrs. sem.
Terms Taught
Requirements
SPAN 0500
Upcoming
Independent Study
Course Description
Independent Study
The department will consider requests by qualified juniors and senior majors to engage in independent work. (Approval only)
Terms Taught
SPAN 0705
Upcoming
Senior Honors Thesis
Course Description
Senior Honors Thesis
The department will award honors, high honors, or highest honors on the basis of a student's work in the department and performance in SPAN 0705. (Approval only)
Terms Taught
Publications
Selected publications
Edited volumes:
Baker P, Feldman I A et al., eds. (2019) Latin American Marxisms: Past and Present. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Feldman I A and Lopez-Zapico, A M, eds. (2019) Resistiendo al Imperio: nuevas aproximaciones al antiamericanismo desde el siglo xx hasta la actualidad. Madrid: Sílex Ediciones
Book:
Rethinking Community from Peru. The Political Philosophy of Jose Maria Arguedas. (2014) Pittsburgh University Press. Pittsburgh, PA.
Book chapters:
Feldman, I A and Pareja R (2019) “Franz Tamayo and Fausto Reinaga on the State, the Army and Revolution in Bolivia of 1952: a Dialogue between Liberal and Marxist Traditions” Latin American Marxisms: Past and Present. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 133-156.
Feldman, I A (2019) “El antiamericanismo necesario en la película Yawar Mallku (Bolivia 1969) de Jorge Sanjinés.” Resistiendo al Imperio: nuevas aproximaciones al antiimperialismo. Madrid: Sílex Ediciones, 73-90.
Articles:
Feldman, I A (2022). “Pensamiento tecnológico y prácticas chamánicas: Leer José María Arguedas con Sara Castro-Klarén” MLN 137 (2022): 1-15. https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/48434.
Feldman, I A (2022). “The insurgent subject versus accumulation by dispossession in Alvaro Garcia Linera and Jorge Sanjines.” Accumulation and Subjectivity in Latin America. SUNY Press, 2022, pp. 175-194.
Feldman, I A (2021). “‘Vida De Artistas’: La Borrachera Andina En El Ámbito Del Hampa Boliviano.” Revista De Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 55, no. 3, 2021, pp. 649–674
Feldman, I A (2021). “Ruin/Waste: Temporal and Spatial Logics of the City of La Paz in Saenz and Viscarra.” Bolivian Studies Journal, vol. 26, no. 0, 0, Dec. 2021, pp. 158–80. bsj.pitt.edu, https://doi.org/10.5195/bsj.2021.253 .
Feldman, Irina Alexandra and Tara Daly. (2020) “El legado de José María Arguedas: los límites de la ecocrítica y las contribuciones marxistas-indigenistas en el siglo XXI”. Mazzotti, José Antonio. Arguedas global: indigenismo en el nuevo milenio. Universidad César Vallejo, 2020, pp. 77-108.
Feldman I A and Daly T A. (2019) “José María Arguedas and Early 21st Century Cultural and Political Theories.” Oxford Bibliographies. Oxford: Oxford U. Press. www.oxfordbibliographies.com.
Feldman, I A (2017) “Jose Maria Arguedas’ The Fox From up Above and the Fox From Down Below. Annotated Bibliography and Research Guide.” Academic advisor. Layman and Poupard Publishing/ Gale Group: Columbia, SC, 175-230.
Feldman I A (2016) “Victor Hugo Viscarra: The Dog Life of the Human Pack—Reflections on the Limits of Community as a Promise of Emancipation.” Alternative Communities in Hispanic Literature and Culture. Eds.: Luis Castañeda and Javier González. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016. 61-86.
(2016) “Fausto Reinaga en la Unión Soviética: una revelación sobre el mesianismo revolucionario.” Revista Cronopio (Colombia) http://www.revistacronopio.com/?p=17476
(2014) “La imagología de la Revolución de Octubre en Mariátegui y Arguedas”. In Россия и Ибероамерика в глобализирующемся мире: история и современность. Saint Petersburg, Russia. September, 2014, pp.163-169.
(2012) “Las estrategias de descolonización en José María Arguedas y Franz Fanon.” Revista de la Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana. Año XXXVIII, No 75. Lima-Boston, 1er semestre de 2012, pp. 77-94
(2012) “Moments of Revolutionary Transformation in the Novels of José María Arguedas” Modern Language Notes 127, 2012, pp.302-317.
(2011) “Heterogeneidad jurídica y violencia fundacional en Todas las sangres”. Revista de Crítica Literaria Latinoamericana Año XXXVI, No 72. Lima-Boston, 2do semestre de 2010, pp. 233-252.